Corinthians Girls v Birkdale United
April 6th, 2010 by NoelWarham| Date: | Sunday 21st March 2010 |
| Location: | Jericho Lane, Liverpool |
| Result: | Corinthians Girls (0) Birkdale United Ladies (7) |
Birkdale United made their final trip to Jericho Lane in the League this season as they faced an improving Corinthians side. A few changes from the previous game saw Gillingham unavailable but the return of Lloyd, McEvoy, Griner after a four-month lay-opff due to injury and the welcome return of Parker to the club after a three year absence.
The visitors could not have wished for a better start as good passing between Jackson and Reppion and a swift one-two between Cooper and Tuakli released the latter to score with a low shot after only 14 seconds – a team record. However, in terms of the general play this was the worst possible start, as Birkdale became sloppy in possession and stopped playing football. Too many players seemed to want to do their own thing and not work for the team, and coupled with the home side’s resolute defensive attitude, this was a source of much frustration. Indeed, it was not until a minute before the break that the visitors doubled their lead, with a great through ball from White being fed into the path of Griner, who drew the keeper and finished neatly before celebrating with a triple somersault!
Such a goal did not change the nature of Noel and Dave’s half-time talk, which focussed on the girls going back to basics and playing good football. This paid immediate dividends as good work down the left from Davidson and Jackson saw Griner clean through to double her tally with another accurate finish, cueing more somersaults! The visitors scored their fourth soon after as a Cooper corner caused all sorts of trouble in the box and Reppion pounced to fire home powerfully at the near post for her second goal in as many games, before displaying her own, more sedate version of Griner’s celebration.
The visitors were playing much better football and only a mixture of poor finishing and great goalkeeping was thwarting them, and indeed the woodwork came to the home side’s aid as a curling effort from Cooper hit the top of the bar. She was not to be denied as good work from Parker and Griffiths down the right and a nice through ball from White saw her finish accurately into the corner. Waring was determined not to be left out, and seconds later scored an excellent goal which saw her win the ball straight from the kick-off before beating seven players for strength and skill and finishing powerfully past the keeper.
There were further chances, most notably a penalty which White hit powerfully but was well saved by the keeper, but in the end Cooper added just the one goal with a low, powerful shot before the referee blew the final whistle in what had been a well-contested and fair match.
Noel and Dave felt that the second half had been a huge improvement on what went before but maintained that Corinthians had represented a much sterner test than previously. Birkdale needed to play as a team at all times and treat each opponent with respect in order to ensure that they performed as well as they can.
The Player of the Match, awarded by Corinthians, went to A. Cooper.
The Managers’ Player of the Match went to T. F. Griner.
The team was: Hesketh, Davidson, Coulter (c), Lloyd, McKenna, Ferguson, Griffiths, Reppion, Jackson, Cooper, Tuakli, White, Waring, McEvoy, Parker and Griner.
